1. Technical Field
The invention relates to an elastic bearing for steering rods of motor vehicles with a stud which is rotatable and movable angularly and radially. The stud is pressed into an intermediate shell and an elastomer bushing is interposed between the shell and the stud which permits limited angular and radial movement of the stud. The intermediate shell is rotatably supported in a joint housing.
The invention also relates to an elastic bearing for steering rods of motor vehicles with a stud which is rotatable in an intermediate shell. The intermediate shell is pressed into a joint housing and an elastomer bushing is interposed between the shell and the joint housing permitting limited angular and radial relative movement.
2. Background Art
Elastic bearings of the kind described above are needed, in particular, for support of the middle rod of three-part steering rods for motor vehicles, in which a rotation of the stud even with slight moment of rotation, and a damping of vibrations, must be possible.
From German Disclosure 30 04 75 is known an elastic bearing with a cylindrical stud, which is held in a rubber-elastic body, while clamping rings lying against a ring of the body hold and prestress the latter in a joint housing. The moment of rotation of the stud is especially great, however, because the rubber-elastic body has a high frictional adhesion to the inner wall of the housing. Moreover, in this known bearing, both the moment of rotation of the stud and the elasticity of its angular and radial movement are determined by the prestress of the clamping rings, so that these parameters of operation cannot be set independently of each other.
German Disclosure 3,613,123 discloses an elastic bearing of the kind, in which the stud can be moved unhindered in the axial direction of the stud because rotary slide bearings are arranged between an intermediate shell and a joint housing or between an intermediate shell and the stud. Since each rotary slide bearing is formed of a bearing part movable along axially in a slide bushing, the moment of rotation depends, in particular, on the dimensions and material properties of this part, so that it varies greatly with the production tolerances. The production of a bearing with a definite and close-tolerance moment of rotation is associated, therefore, with considerable production expense. The moment of rotation is also subject to considerable variations during operation, especially by wear on the sliding surfaces and by different heat expansion of the slide bushing and the bearing part.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,846,251 discloses an elastic rotary bearing of limited angular and radial mobility with bearing surfaces formed on a ring of the stud. In this rotary bearing, there is no intermediate shell, and the rotatability cannot be set independently of the radial and angular mobility.